I Was Just Flying Along
by Eraasay
Summary: When Jack resques a stranger from maneating tigers, a new adventure begins. Can they negotiate peace long enough for both, SG1 and original character, to complete their respective missions? Later, a new Goauld threat, and what is the secret of the maneati
1. Chapter 1

I Was Just Flying Along...

Once far, far away on a small, isolated, tranquil world there stood an ancient stone ring in the middle of a vast prairie. In a circle around the stone ring there were seven pillars, each as tall as it and carved with similar glyphs. This ancient monument stood untouched by the trials of time and weather and man for untold generations. Tall prairie grasses swayed in the wind over the rolling hills as far as the eye could see. Just over the horizon was a shoreline and in the other direction, a long and ragged mountain chain.

"This sounds like a nice peaceful planet, for once!" declared Colonel Jack O'Neill as he looked up from the report in his hands.

Across the briefing table, Teal'c nodded, "Indeed."

Major Samantha Carter smile din amusement at her team. She couldn't wait for their next mission. A simple information-gathering and exploration trip with no evil Goa-uld, Jaffa troops, superstitious natives, or anyone else who might shoot at her was as close to a vacation as she was likely to get anytime soon. And Dr. Daniel Jackson would be happy, too, with so many artifacts to translate.

"Good." General Hammond agreed, "You leave at 14:00 hours tomorrow."

----- MEANWHILE ------


	2. Chapter 2

Author's Note—Hi! I have written most of this on-going story already and will post maybe each week after now. The title will, hopefully, make more sense later. Though I will change it if I can think of a better one.

Disclaimer—All belongs to the TV peoples. I don't know who they are, but they aren't me. Though my original character does belong to me...

...It sure seemed longer written out on my notepad. The next few chapters will be longer. Well, that's all for now! Bye! –Eraasay

The Star Cruiser fell out of the Winds that carried it through hyperspace. The ship appeared back in normal space with a flash of light and an explosion near the end of its fuselage, where the hyperdrive used to be. It visibly floundered as the pilot tried desperately to regain control of her ship with the sublight engines.

In the cockpit, Keertana was on the edge of panic. Klaxons and alarms blared through the ship and in her helmet. She wore the traditional full battle armor of her people, the Kwalleeye. Screen and holos showed the damage.

A bomb had gone off on the hull right over the hyperdrive. After scanning the immediate area and finding it clear of anything threatening, besides a small planet, Keertana realized what had happened.

She almost cursed. In her last port of call someone had planted a bomb on her ship! She should have known she would get more than just a refueling and supplies if even one in fifty rumors that come out of that city were true. But there was no time to think any more about the matter.

The Kwalleeye warrior's hands flew over the familiar controls as she converted the ship back into normal deep space flight, contained the damage, and regained control in general.

It was a battle she was rapidly losing as the planet's gravity well trapped the Star Cruiser. Keertana tightened the crash webbing about her flight harness. The straining engines slowed the warship's descent through the atmosphere, but not enough for a controlled landing.

She saw a huge grassland continent filling the view through the canopy way too fast.

Keertana braced for impact, "AAAHHHHHH!"

----- MEANWHILE -----


	3. Chapter 3

Colonel Jack O'Neill saluted an air-man and took his usual seat in the SGC commissary. SG-1 always ate lunch together.

As Jack settled his tray, Daniel looked up from his green jell-o and asked, "So, how was your week-end?"

This earned him and odd look. The archeologist usually spent his off time with his nose in some book about ancient Egypt. Apparently he'd realized that not everyone did.

"It was just peachy!" Jack groaned, "Darn river."

Teal'c tilted his head inquisitively and asked, "What happened?"

"I have this old friend, and he asked me to come river rafting with him. Not white-water rafting – that's what he told me – and he knew this great fishing spot. They get this big!" He demonstrated, holding his hands apart. "But, to make a really, really long story short, there were no fish, kept looking, got completely lost, found some rapids which led to this waterfall. When we went over..."

At about this point Major Sam Carter sat down. She looked at him, shocked, as she had only heard his last few words.

"Oh, it was only a small waterfall." Jack said in a reassuring tone that did nothing to remove the horror from her face.

Daniel thought this was just hilarious.

"How is this funny?"

"Your reaction!" Daniel replied, and glanced at Jack who barely managed to keep his straight face. Unlike his blonde teammate, Daniel had become very good at telling when their friend was serious and when e was exaggerating or sarcastic.

Teal'c, on the other hand, always took everything he said quite literally. He told them, in all seriousness, "Once on Chulak, when I was a boy, I jumped over a waterfall."

Sam decided that they were just trying to mess with her. She glared at her Colonel and focused on eating her blue jell-o. She didn't really like the idea of Jack going over a waterfall. Or Teal'c. Or anyone, for that matter.

"... in the absolute middle of nowhere. About 20 miles downriver we found this little park environmental tour place with a little greeting center. So I called a taxi. Oh! I almost forgot! While I was waiting, I got you all souvenirs!" Jack rummaged in his pockets.

Sam and Daniel looked up, surprised.

Teal'c asked, "What is this 'souvenirs' you speak of?"

"A souvenir is like a little trinket you get to remember where you were or if something happened." Sam explained.

He handed Teal'c a leather chord necklace with a sharp fish-tooth fossil and colored Indian beads, similar to the one he'd gotten for himself. Daniel got a National Geographic poster depicting the history of the region. There had used to be an Indian tribe that lived in the nearby mountains and hunted in the river. He handed to Sam a leather chord bracelet with Indian beading and river stones.

"Wow! It's beautiful!" She grinned, "Thank you, sir!"

"Thank you, O'Neill."

"Yeah, this is great!"

Jack leaned back and smiled, satisfied with the reception of his gifts.

Soon lunch was over and they headed off to the Gate room. Even though she knew it was against the dress code, Sam hid her bracelet under her sleeve. Jack saw, but said nothing.

"Chevron seven locked!"

"All go!"

The team walked up the ramp towards the glittering blue-white Stargate.

----- MEANWHILE -----


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's Note**: Hey, if anyone wants to read more of this story, tell me! Otherwise, I have very little incentive to keep posting... (Lazy Eraasay!) Hey! I'm not lazy! I have other things to do, more important than sitting in front of the computer screen for hours on end! (Eraa, you know that's only because your sister doesn't and you can rarely get a long turn.) Ha! See, Bob, I told you so! (Huh?) I am not lazy! It's all sissy's fault I never update anything besides my E-mail! (P! You just distort everything I say to fit your argument! So conniving...) Mwahahaha! (sigh ... On with the story...)

**Chapter Four**

Keertana felt like there was an entire Kwalleeye Dreadnought on top of her. She fought for consciousness. As she blinked, the pressure and dark emptiness fled from her body, soon replaced by a throbbing pain.

She groaned and blinked, 'What happened?...Flying along...Ka-boom...oh, yeah...planet...crashed...ow.'

Her next thought came through clearer, the memory of a Commander telling her, back in Battle School, ' "Crash-landings: Most warships explode on impact. Those that don't, usually explode soon after impact." '

Keertana lurched into action, tugging a6t the crash webbing and flight harness to free herself and half-slurred, "...no...esplode...mus'...stabilize..."

She checked each system, ran diagnostics, pressurized, set off fire-suppressant foam, and powered-down everything. That should keep it, until she could start repairs with the limited spare parts aboard the Star Cruiser.

Sighing, she leaned back to rest for a moment before climbing outside; the landing ramp was jammed. Though her armor had protected the young warrior from any serious injury, Keertana had not escaped unscathed. Her sides ached with a few ribs probably bruised or broken and her right leg hurt from several lacerations or burns, she couldn't tell. She started to unbraid one of the many small braids she kept her long silver hair in and thought tiredly to herself, 'I can't believe I was so naive as to stop at port there...will bring a first-aid kit...see the damage from outside...' before drifting off to sleep.

Later, as the sun fell towards the western horizon, Keertana stood out in the swaying prairie grasses. She half-yawned inside her helmet. She hadn't meant to sleep so long, but had to admit that she felt much better for it.

She crossed her arms and looked at the downed Star Cruiser. It was in the shape of a viscous deep-sea monster from her homeworld. It was a truly fearsome sight to behold, even partially buried, crushed, or bent. Dirt and grass that had been ripped up on the impact covered most of it, obscuring the Star Cruiser's traditional war paint. She sighed. Repairs would take a long time, by herself. But she would at least be able to make it space-worthy enough to limp back to a safe port.

The molten bronze sun dawned on the stranded Kwalleeye warrior. Keertana raised her gold spy glass to her eye and panned slowly across the landscape. As far as she could see, tall prairie grasses covered low rolling hills. The grasses were gold to green to brown all growing wild together. To the north there was a patch that looked greener. She thought she saw a flash of light that might have been the sun reflecting off water.

Hopefully it would be fresh water. With her ship in such bad shape, it would not be long before she ran out of drinking, cooking, and bathing water, not to mention the coolant systems.

Keertana sang an old patriot's song to herself as she did her morning stretches then secured her sword and canteen to her belt. A large bag for some of the water she hoped to find was slung over her shoulder. The going was harder than it should have been. Keertana limped, favoring her injured right leg, but still tried to make good time. That odd rock monument/circle/formation was coming up on her left; she was about half-way to the green patch. Suddenly, from behind her, there was a low growling sound. Keertana whirled around and, at a heavy crashing sound coming towards her through the grass, unsheathed her sword in almost and instant.

A huge wild animal sprung though the grasses at her. It was a powerfully muscled feline with sharp, glinting teeth and claws and its coat was striped orange and black; perfect camouflage on the plains. Keertana took all this in as she brought her sword up in a defensive block. The animal's face collided with the blade but the force of its attack knocked her down. She struggle, fighting its weight.

The pinned warrior managed to draw a large fighting dagger from its holster at her thigh, and stabbed it into the animal's belly. It whimpered and she heaved it to the side. Standing up, she kicked its head, further stilling it, and was about to take her sword to its neck when roaring was heard in the distance to the south, unfortunately in the same direction as her ship. She couldn't tell how many it was, but it sure sounded like a lot of them. Keertana decided to leave the one downed orange and black mammal and make a run for it.

**P.S.** Next chapter has our favorite Stargate characters again!


End file.
